


Ask About Being Dead

by burglebezzlement



Category: In Control with Kelsey (Web Series), Kelsey 100 Baby Challenge
Genre: Family Feels, Gen, Ghosts, References to prior canon deaths, State-Mandated Ghost Hunting, Video Game Mechanics
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-25
Updated: 2019-12-25
Packaged: 2021-02-25 22:27:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,200
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21902989
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/burglebezzlement/pseuds/burglebezzlement
Summary: When Chelsea Junior gets summoned by the Simland Bureau of Post-Death Affairs for state-mandated ghost hunting duty, she's going to have to have some difficult conversations.
Relationships: Chelsea Impicchishmay Junior & Chelsea Impicchishmay, Chelsea Impicchishmay Junior & Kasey Impicchishmay
Comments: 14
Kudos: 16
Collections: Yuletide 2019





	Ask About Being Dead

**Author's Note:**

  * For [saiditallbefore](https://archiveofourown.org/users/saiditallbefore/gifts).



> Happy Yuletide!
> 
> This was written before the first University spin-off episode went up on Youtube, and does not include anything from that continuity.

Her mom meets her at the door, smiling wide. “Chelsea Junior!”

Chelsea Junior hugs her mom. “Hey,” she says, feeling guilty. She’s not just here to visit, but she’s not sure how to tell her mom that.

“This is such a treat,” her mom says. “It’s great to see you. Come on in. Did I give you residence keys? Let me give you residence keys.”

Walking through the front door brings back so many memories. The warm smell of a baking birthday cake that nobody was ever allowed to eat. The comfort of a garden salad. The toddlers, bratty and lovable. Her mom doing dance videos and streaming herself flirting with potential future parents and being larger-than-life, the center of all the Impicchishmay world.

Chelsea Junior follows her mom into the living room. The wall is lined with birth certificates — more now than the last time Chelsea Junior visited. 

“How’s your love life?” her mom asks. “Did you ever have a date with that nice boy you met?”

“ _Mom_.” Chelsea Junior regrets telling her mom about meeting Aiden. It was just so weird — who wakes up in the middle of the night with an irresistible compulsion to go outside and see if a boy is wandering by?

Chelsea Junior takes a deep breath, and then she realizes she has no idea how to tell her mom she got called for ghost-hunting duty. Well, technically she and her next-door-neighbor in the dorms, Vanessa, got called, but Chelsea Junior really likes Vanessa, like really likes her, and she’s not sure Vanessa is ready yet for the whole Impicchishmay _thing_. So she and Vanessa visited the first four households together, ghosts all done and dusted, and then Chelsea Junior told Vanessa she’d handle the last one solo.

She’s still trying to figure out how to tell her mom when the doorbell rings.

“Sorry,” her mom says, looking guilty. “It’s your newest sibling’s future dad, and I gotta —”

“Ugh. _Mom._ TMI.”

But her mom’s already gone, greeting the next future parent at the door. Chelsea Junior wonders about that sometimes. Does her mom feel the same way she did that time with Aiden? Excited and confused and maybe a little like someone else is playing her life? It’s weird. Super-weird.

Chelsea Junior sits back down on the couch and thinks. She’s been called for ghost-hunting duty because she’s supposed to help her mom decide to let Harry and her grandma, Chelsea Senior, move on. That’s not going to be easy if her mom’s going to be flirting with some rando for the next few hours. 

She leans back and groans. She’s about to give up and leave, maybe head back to the dorm and see if Vanessa is up for a juice keg or something, when she sees that the flower arrangement on the table is floating.

“Harry?” She gets up and walks over to the table.

The flower arrangement lowers gently to the table’s surface, and then Chelsea Senior appears inside the table.

“Hey, Grandma,” Chelsea Junior says, feeling awkward. She’s suddenly glad she left her officially-issued scythe out at the mailbox. It’s not like Chelsea Senior knows she was called here by the Simland Bureau of Post-Death Affairs.

“Chelsea Junior!” Her grandma’s smile is just like her mom’s, but her hug feels like being hugged by a cold breeze from the ocean. “It’s so good to see you.”

“It’s really good to see you, too,” Chelsea Junior says. She remembers all the times when Chelsea Senior showed up to hang out with them when her mom was otherwise occupied. “How are you?”

“Still keeping a strong connection to the mortal realm,” Chelsea says with a laugh. “Can’t complain, kiddo. How are you? Ready to start popping out the babies?”

Chelsea Junior shivers involuntarily. “Maybe not ever,” she admits.

“That’s good too.” Chelsea Senior pats her arm. “It’s not for everyone.”

“Are you and Harry happy?” Chelsea Junior asks. 

The official pamphlet she got from the Simland Bureau of Post-Death Affairs when she was called for state-mandated ghost-hunting duty says that ghosts could become frustrated with their ghostly state, and might start taking it out on the living. Chelsea Junior loves her grandma and Harry, but she also loves her mom and her siblings, and she doesn’t want them to be hurt. But would her grandma ever try to hurt them? Chelsea Junior can’t imagine that.

“I think Harry’s sometimes frustrated,” Chelsea Senior says. “You don’t remember him before he was a ghost, do you? He wanted to grow up.” She looks sad. “He drowned on his birthday.”

“That’s why mom’s always so paranoid about pools,” Chelsea Junior says.

“Pools and grills.” Chelsea Senior sighs. “But it’s just another stage in life, sweetie. We’re not in pain. Harry plays video games with your brothers, and I get to get to know you kids. And nobody can tell us what to do.”

Chelsea Junior’s eyes go wide. She hasn’t talked to anyone about that night with Aiden. Not after she asked her mom about it, and her mom asked her whether Aiden was cute instead of explaining why Chelsea Junior woke up in the middle of the night with that weird compulsion to go meet him.

“You used to feel that?” Chelsea Junior asks. “The compulsions to do something.”

“Or do someone.” Chelsea Senior laughs at the horrified expression on Chelsea Junior’s face. “Sorry, kiddo. TMI, I know. Your mom used to tell me the same thing.” She grows quiet for a moment. “But yeah, I did. I think your mom does, too, and sometimes you kids do. I’m not sure why it happens.”

“But you don’t feel it now?” Chelsea Junior asks.

“Not once since I died.” Chelsea Senior shrugs. “I think dying moved me beyond the Player’s control.”

“The Player?”

“My nickname for whoever’s pulling the strings,” Chelsea Senior says. “You ever play The Sims Forever?”

“Maybe once or twice,” Chelsea Junior says, thinking guiltily of the time she’d told those Sims to bang in a hot tub. Those weren’t real people, though… were they?

“All I have is theories,” Chelsea Senior says. “I’m working on a book about it, actually.” She smiles. “When I was alive, I wrote to keep your mom and her brothers and sisters clothed and fed and housed. Now that I’m dead, I’m writing for me.”

“I’d like to read it some day,” Chelsea Junior says. 

She’s made up her mind. She wants her grandma and Harry to go on un-living here. They’re family, and she loves them. And she knows — a little better than most of the Impicchishmay kids — what it’s like to have someone pulling your strings. If being ghosts is giving Chelsea Senior and Harry a chance to hang out and have a post-life without that, it’s worth it.

Maybe Vanessa will help her come up with something to tell the Simland Bureau of Post-Death Affairs.

“Can I ask you something else?” Chelsea Junior asks.

“Anything.”

“Why do you and Harry keep haunting the plumbing? It’s just plumbing. Why is it so interesting for you?”

Chelsea Senior smiles. “I think you have to be dead to get that one, kiddo. Maybe someday you’ll learn.”


End file.
